Max Verstappen admitted that it is “impossible to know” how competitive Red Bull will be at this weekend’s Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix, a race which will be a contrast from last week’s chaos at Spa.
The Belgian Grand Prix saw significant energy starvation due to the fast layout of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, leaving drivers depleted of battery power by the time they reached Les Combes.
It was evident that this caused an inordinate amount of drama on Lap 1, as Verstappen briefly took the lead, but saw the Mercedes of Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari roar back into his slipstream.
Verstappen joked to media, incuding Motorsport Week, after the race, that after seeing the “red rocket” of Leclerc’s SF-26, he held his line to avoid an “aeroplane shunt” due to the speed differences.
When asked by Motorsport Week how the ‘new’ rear wing, having temporarily abandoned its iteration of the ‘Macarena’ wing, performed, Verstappen indicated positivity but admitted its tyre usage left a lot to be desired.
“You mean the old rear wing?” the Dutchman quipped. “It performed well. I kept it on the road, which I think is the first thing. We were just a little bit more competitive, and the balance was a little bit better. But we struggled more on the Hard, as simple as that.”
‘Good cornering performance’ key for Red Bull
Ahead of this weekend’s Hungarian GP, there has been an anticipation of a closer race, due to the slow profile of the Hungaroring, potentially giving Mercedes’ chief rivals Ferrari, as well as Red Bull, a chance to challenge the Silver Arrows.
Verstappen was aware of how it may play into the Milton Keynes-based squad’s hands, but was unable to put a firm prediction in place for how the RB22 will perform out on track.
“Honestly, of course it’s nice to be less starved in Hungary,” he said, “but I don’t know whether that’s good or bad because, at the end of the day, there are a lot of corners and you need good cornering performance from the car, which makes it impossible to know how good we are going to be.”
It is Verstappen’s final chance to implement some stability to his season and secure a first win, with the summer break coming after the event, with a month’s gap between that and his home race at Zandvoort.
With continuing speculation about Verstappen’s future at Red Bull amid reported talks with McLaren, it will also give him and the team a chance to end the first half of the season on a firmly positive note.
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